Colorado Pol Aims for Civil Unions

A Colorado state senator plans to introduce a civil unions bill in the coming weeks, 9 News Denver reports.

"This is something that I think is overdue," said Sen. Pat Steadman of Denver, "something that will protect families and will make our laws a little bit more fair, and a little bit more inclusive, so that everyone has the same opportunity to have economic security and stability in their family relationship."

Colorado voters passed a constitutional amendment in 2006 limiting marriage to heterosexual couples. But in a December op-ed in The Denver Post, Steadman wrote, "It's important to give gay couples the same legal parameters for determining alimony, the division of property and wealth, and other legal frameworks afforded to straight couples."

Steadman's push for a civil unions bill came as gay activists criticized Colorado attorney general John Suthers, who recently signed a brief along with four other state attorneys general defending the federal Defense of Marriage Act, currently at the center of multiple legal challenges.

Read the article here.